Sonali Bhattacharyya

SB: We went along to...we visit...we had a visit to Parliament. And they had a Labour Party stall, because they were still...you know, it was just before the 1997...no, not ’97. When did he come in? It was '97.

EF: Blair? ’97. Oh, what, came in as leader?

SB: Yes, it's when he came in as leader.

EF: Oh.

SB: So, was it nine...was it not in ’95?

EF: Yeah, and I was going to say ’94, ’95. Yeah, it was ’94, because I watched a film about the Criminal Justice Act, which was ’94, and they had all these intercuts between Blair's leadership, so they kind of tied those two things together.

SB: Yeah. So that made sense. Because it would have been ’94, so it would have been my first year of A-levels, so they would have taken us to Parliament. And I remember having like a...they had a stall there where they were like promoting the Labour Party. It was all covered in Blair pictures. And I went over and I told them that he wasn't a socialist, and that that meant that there wasn't a socialist party. And, like, they were like grown-ups. I would just remember like...just I think I have this part of it, but they were like grown-ups. But they were so outraged. I mean, Blairites never change, do they? They were so outraged that they...this kid would come over, and it was like basically like calling them out that, they had like a proper go at me. They were like, 'You would rather see the Tories in power for like...' and it's like, it's the same thing that you hear ringing down the years, isn't it? So yeah, it was very...was very interested in party politics. But certainly wasn't...how...I don't...I haven't changed, in that I don't...I didn't sort of see like party politics as the route to sort of social change. I had more like a sense of sort of...yeah, just a sort of a sense of sort of dissatisfaction, and...what's the word? Sort of...felt a frustration, just real frustration with party politics. I could see that that was a seat of power, but I didn't have any faith in it.

EF: So, what were some of the things that you were doing sort of in this sort of period between, I don't know, sort of 18 and 30 as a sort of rough guide, that you were doing outside of party politics that...to bring that change you wanted to see?

SB: So, the first thing I did that was off my own back, and which I did independently...so there's a few things. So, I did quite a few things with my sister, and I would say I was very much led with what she was doing. She was doing some awesome stuff. So, I'll go on to that in a minute. But one of the things I did off my own back, which was not so awesome, but I was only young, was I got involved in the Anti-Nazi League in Leicester. Because it was very obviously like, well, I'm an anti-racist, and this is the Anti-Nazi League. And so I did like, whether at quite a young age, which I guess is how it works, the full-on like tedium of SWP organizing. So, I did like try to go to some meetings and like ran some stalls. And was...really…had some really awful racial abuse on those stalls and, looking back, was not protected or defended in any way by some of the people. Should have known better, but it's...I was very naive to what...yeah, I guess, you know, the very complex picture of British politics, which is, you know, going to be the case for everyone that age because it is, it's quite dysfunctional, I'd say, having now seen a bit more of it. So, yeah, I did a bit of that off my own back, sort of organizing. That would be like getting the bus into town, running stalls, going to a few meetings and stuff. And the better stuff definitely was the stuff I got more involved in through my sister. So, as I say, my sister was involved in like a lot of campaigns around, you know, like the Newham Monitoring Project, who I think are now called Netpol. Had a real focus around police brutality, deaths in custody, very little attention being paid to those things, just as now, unfortunately. And like now there's like United Friends and Families Campaign, and that would have been quite burgeoning at that point. So those were like family-led campaigns. But obviously with a great deal of support from like grass-roots activists, I'd say. And that's where a lot of the like anti-racist...the effect...the, well, more effective anti-racist organizing was going on. So, I'd go on like demos with my sister around those things. And then also...and actually, I'd also say because my sister's bi, and I went...I used to go to Pride with her every year as well. So, there was like a...yeah, like I sort of like involved in a few things through her. And then the key campaign that I guess started to take up more of our time was the Free Satpal Ram campaign. I don't know if you remember Satpal Ram was...

EF: No. Could you just explain what that was?

SB: Yeah, sure. I can't remember exactly what year it was, but he was attacked. He was someone who worked...he was an Asian bloke who worked in a warehouse. And he's on his way home from work one day when he was attacked by two racists who tried to beat...who beat him with, you know, like a glass ashtray, you know the sort you'd get in a pub. So quite a weapon. He defended himself against the attack, and he had a box...you know a box-cutter knife? Because he was a warehouse worker. He defended himself against the attack and cut one of them with a box-cutting knife. They were both taken to hospital. But that man who got cut refused to be treated by a Black member of staff. So he...and he...so he died of his injuries. But he died avoidably of his injuries because of his racism. Like he...

EF: Gosh, yeah.

SB: Could have been treated by staff immediately, and he refused to be treated by anyone who wasn't white. And Satpal was convicted of...I can't remember if he was convicted of murder or of manslaughter, but...so we basically got involved in the campaign to sort of...yeah, the Free Satpal Ram campaign, because he was put away for that. And the fact that he was defending himself wasn't taken into any account.

Entry credit

Anya Amlani